1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer networks and, more particularly, to transmitting packets over two different network protocols without protocol conversion in any switches.
2. Description of the Related Art
As computer memory storage and data bandwidth increase, so does the amount and complexity of data that business and industry daily manage. Businesses typically rely on data centers to run many operations. A data center generally includes client or host computers interconnected by one or more networks. The host computers increasingly share one or more data storage subsystems via the one or more networks. If any portion of the data center has poor performance or becomes unavailable, company operations may be impaired or stopped completely. A data center must therefore keep high standards for assuring the integrity and functionality of its hosted computer environment.
A data center may utilize two or more different network protocols for different benefits and purposes. For example, a business may use an Ethernet protocol when end-users need to transfer relatively small amounts of information over both local and global distances or in clustered, low-latency compute environments. The same business may use a Fibre Channel (FC) protocol for storage area networks (SANs). A FC network protocol is generally implemented when a business accesses a large amount of information for booting over SANs, mail servers, file servers and large databases. In addition, server virtualization is increasingly used in data centers. The demand for Fibre Channel in this case is driven by the need for hypervisors to provide guest operating systems with virtualized storage, accessible through a Fibre Channel network infrastructure.
In order to take advantage of both network protocols, host computers or servers utilize multiple ports on one or more network interface cards (NICs) to interface with an Ethernet network and utilize multiple ports on one or more host bus adapter (HBAs) to interface with a FC network. The complexity of adapter configurations and the number of cables both increase as the processor performance increases. In response, the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) published a standard known as the Fibre Channel Backbone—5 (FC-BB-5). This standard enables the consolidation of both FC SANs and Ethernet traffic onto one common network adapter in an attempt to reduce the growing number of adapters required. This standard utilizes a network protocol referred to as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) that maps the Fibre Channel protocol natively over the Ethernet protocol.
Current FCoE deployments consist of Converged Network Adapters (CNAs) on host computers and (FCoE) Forwarders (FCFs) in a network. A FCF operates as an Ethernet switch able to operate also as a FC switch. A transmitted FCoE packet between an initiator and a FCF in the FC-BB-5 standard is an Ethernet packet with an encapsulated FC packet. The FCF is responsible for encapsulating and decapsulating FC and FCoE packets between an initiator and a target storage array in a FC SAN. Each initiator interfaces with an FCF in the FC-BB-5 standard, which creates a network traffic bottleneck. Proposed solutions call for changes in the initiator and/or the FCF to provide new functionality. However, these changes both impact currently deployed FCoE initiators that adhere to the existing FC-BB-5 standard and/or utilize an expensive new FCF.
In view of the above, systems and methods for transmitting packets over two different network protocols without protocol conversion in any switches are desired.